Dolores Ibarruri

Dolores Ibarruri (9 December 1895-12 November 1989) was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain from March 1942 to 3 July 1960, succeeding Jose Diaz Ramos and preceding Santiago Carrillo.

Biography
Dolores Ibarruri was born in Gallarta, Basque Country, Spain in 1895, and she was raised in a poor mining family, working as a seamstress and cook. After marrying the socialist Julian Ruiz in 1915 she became active in the socialist movement. In 1919 she published an article in the mining journal El Minero Vizcaino signed "La Pasionaria", a name by which she became popularly known. In 1920, she co-founded the Communist Party of Spain. As a member of the party's national executive, she was frequently in jail under the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. After the establishment of the Spanish Second Republic in 1931, she moved to Madrid. She campaigned tirelessly and effectively for the party, and organized its women's movement. In return, in 1933 she was elected the party's president. It was during the Spanish Civil War, however, that she became a legend in her lifetime, as she used her formidable rhetorical skills to exhort the Republican troops with courage and defiance. She organized thousands of women for the war effort. After Francisco Franco's victory she left for Moscow, where she lived as the figurehead leader of the outlawed Communist Party. She returned to Spain after Franco's death, and led the party's return to Parliament in 1977. She remained the nominal leader of her party until her death.